May 15, 2024 — The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has launched a call for tender for the installation of EuroQCS-Spain, a new EuroHPC quantum computer to be integrated into the EuroHPC supercomputer MareNostrum5.

EuroQCS-Spain will be an adiabatic quantum computer, or quantum annealer, hosted and operated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain and integrated into the EuroHPC world-class supercomputer MareNostrum 5 (MN5).

This new quantum system will complement the digital quantum computer  that BSC already hosts and which was procured under the Quantum Spain initiative.  These different quantum systems will be integrated into MN5 to provide European users  access to a variety of different  computing platforms.

EuroQCS-Spain will be available to a wide range of European users, from the scientific community to industry and the public sector. The upcoming quantum computing infrastructure will support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe, adding new capabilities to the European supercomputing infrastructure.

The acquisition and integration of quantum computers into existing HPC data centres is EuroHPC’s first initiative to procure quantum computing hardware directly, which will be owned by the EuroHPC JU.

The total cost of the system is EUR 8.5 million and will be co-funded by the EuroHPC JU and the EuroQCS-Spain consortium. The EuroQCS-Spain consortium is led by BSC, and includes Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) from Spain and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Portugal.